The LA Furniture-Maker Who Keeps Google Green
Employing organic materials and seamless design, Emily Kroll’s Californian company Ekla Home is redefining what it means to live green.
Words: Jon Roth
Images: Sami Drasin
Throw out the term “eco furniture” and what comes to mind may be less than appealing. Perhaps a spindly futon swathed in hemp or a deflated macramé beanbag. And that drives Emily Kroll crazy. As the founder of Ekla Home, one of the country’s top eco furniture firms, she specializes in low-slung couches and minimalist armchairs that would look at home in any high-end showroom; the only sticker shock stems from the “organic” distinction on their tags.
Good design and sustainable practices run in Kroll’s family. One grandfather produced cutting-edge furniture for Gimbel’s and Macy’s; another started an early scrap reclamation company in Britain, so Kroll’s green leanings are in her blood.
In 1994, after years working in the furniture industry, Kroll started Ashland & Hill in Santa Monica, the seaside town where she spent most of her childhood. Soon after, she got a wake-up call. “I read my industry was responsible for cutting down two-thirds of the world’s rainforests,” she remembers. “I thought, there must be a way we can work in reclaimed wood or sustainable crops.” She did both. First by gathering lumber from decommissioned Los Angeles buildings, then by sourcing alder, a fast-growing maple lookalike.
Next she tackled upholstered pieces and rebuilt them from the stuffing out. Soft furniture is usually filled with polyurethane foam, a petroleum-based substance often packed with chemicals. “Foam is basically this toxic soup that’s made into an air bubble material that we sit on,” she explains. Instead, she began sourcing rubber, tapped from pesticide-free plantations and wrapped in wool, then organic cotton-twill. The end result? Beautiful, comfortable pieces with a tiny carbon footprint, ethically built, and free of VOCs (chemicals emitted from adhesives, finishes, and fabric treatments that can be harmful over time).
“Organic furniture doesn’t have to look like it’s from the 1975 Berkeley Craft Fair.” — Emily Kroll
It seems like an easy sell, but it wasn’t when Kroll shopped the idea in 2007. An investor in Sweden pledged funding, but after the ’08 collapse, much of that money never came through. “People weren’t interested in organic sofas. Or any sofas. Home furnishings are tied to real estate, so when that market collapsed, so did ours.” That’s when Starbucks called, looking for reclaimed wood tables. All told, Ekla produced pieces for more than 200 California coffee shops, allowing the fledgling company to remain afloat.
Now, her client list includes MTV, HBO, and Capitol Records, who stock Ekla in their offices. The company is a vendor of Google, and Kroll just inked a deal with Adobe. But when you ask her what she’s most proud of, the conversation reverts to sustainability. Ekla recently participated in a zero net-energy demo home with Honda and the University of California Davis, and her pieces dotted Greenbuild’s 2015 Unity Home in Washington DC. She’s also midway through Cradle to Cradle, “the Cadillac of environmental certifications,” she says.
Today, Kroll fills her Santa Monica bungalow with classics — Paul Frankl desk, George Mulhauser for Plycraft Mr. Chair — as well as Ekla’s reclaimed wood table and Kristina sectional. And as her firm grows, she’s looking to branch off from their factory-direct model and add an LA-area showroom.
“If we can solve the problem of polluted indoor environments and more people can live healthy, productive lives,” Kroll says, “we have succeeded.”
Explore the LA neighborhoods Kroll herself calls home at Compass.com.
